One of President Hamid Karzai's bodyguards and five other people have been arrested in connection with the alleged plan, a spokesman for Afghanistan's intelligence agency said at a news conference in Kabul today, The Guardian reports.

"A dangerous and educated group including teachers and students wanted to assassinate President Hamid Karzai," spokesman Lutfullah Mashal said, according to the Guardian.

"Mashal said the assassination ring included several university students and professors. One of the masterminds was an Arab national who had traveled to neighboring Pakistan, he said."

And the Guardian adds that:

"Mashal said that those detained had ties with a man named Haji Bilal, who was a member of al-Qaida and the Haqqani network based in Pakistan's tribal region of North Waziristan, bordering Afghanistan."

Earlier today,The Wall Street Journal reported that "U.S. officials this summer secretly met with leaders of the deadly Haqqani network ... in an effort to draw them into talks on winding down the war. ... Pakistan and U.S. officials said the push to draw the Haqqanis into talks has yielded little."